


The Things We Love

by alyblack



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, I Hate Christmas, Kinda, Sad and Beautiful, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-23
Updated: 2016-12-23
Packaged: 2018-09-11 12:49:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8980423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyblack/pseuds/alyblack
Summary: Being old hadn’t stopped them from going outside two years ago to hit each other in the face with snowballs. She giggled all the way through it; making the horrible pain in his knees worth it during the following week.





	

December 24th, eleven-fifth-four. There was a faint layer of snow covering the ground and the air was sending small sparkles of cold down his spine. Everything hurt just a little more intensely because of his age. Time had passed and with it, his youth had gone by without him even noticing it.

He had spent the past hour standing there waiting for the clock to turn midnight for Christmas to finally arrive. They loved everything about the holidays; especially the snow. True be told they had it pretty often considering the bad weather the city was always suffering; but there was nothing quite like Christmas snow. It had a something especial about it.

Being old hadn’t stopped them from going outside two years ago to hit each other in the face with snowballs. She giggled all the way through it; making the horrible pain in his knees worth it during the following week.

They had met forty years ago in a night not much different than this one; she had her blonde hair braided in a complicated design and she was wearing a heavy sweater with red stripes and a black skirt with thick red stocks. Looking back now she looked promptly ridiculous, but he loved it all the same.

He was sure he had a picture of her wearing that outfit somewhere in their house, he would have to look it up later. After Christmas. Time had been generous with Mercy. She had aged well; maintaining her lean figure and full curly hair. It had, of course, lost its color, but she seemed to have just as much as she had when they were young.

It wasn’t costume for young brides to walk down the aisle with loose hair, especially if they were rebellious like hers, but she did it anyways. When he saw her walking in his direction, his heart raced inside his chest as if trying to get closer to her faster. Forty years had passed and every single time he looked at her it was as if he was watching her for the first time. Forty years and she was still his gal.

He knew why they loved Christmas so much. During the first one they spent as a married couple she had made him a scavenger hunt all around the house for him to find his gift; it had been a pair of blue, tiny, shoes. She was pregnant with their first child. Their second one had been born on the 25th, three years later.

She loved the lights and the decoration; several times throughout the years he had genuinely thought she would cause a fire. And yet he never tried to stop her. Every time her accessories turned bigger, he was there to help her set it up.

There was no place for regrets or unhappiness in a life lived with Mercy. She had been there for him during his cancer, during their grandchildren’s birth, during forty Christmas. He was married to the best friend he ever had.

It was Christmas when she died. Forty-first Christmas. She died before the clock announced midnight on the 24th. That had been exactly a year ago. She had made him promise that he wouldn’t let something as small as her passing ruin the holidays for him. It was their thing and he should love it all the same. So he had. There was party expecting him in a few hours; but the turning of the clock he passed by her side.

Her favorite flowers in his hand and a piece of strawberry pie resting at the side of her grave, he waiting for the clock. Talking to her in silence, telling her about the year she had missed and how much of everything reminded him of her. As soon as the alarm went off, he put the flowers down and smiled, telling her how much he loved her and how much he urged to see her again. He stuck around for another half hour, not wanting to leave her alone in the date she loved so much.

He didn’t cry when it was time to leave; instead he thought about the snow and the house full of children and music that expected him. He thought of her and laughed; a heart full of longing and the satisfaction of a lifetime well spent.

 


End file.
